About Me

SCRIBAL EVANGELIST
As the only living certified Soferet (סופרת - female Jewish ritual scribe) & the first woman to practice sofrut (creation of sacred Hebrew texts) in over 200 years, I feel an obligation to blog about my experiences of The Work.
I am also currently researching the foundation of a lost tradtion of women practicing this holy craft.
For more on the services I provide, please see Soferet.com; Sofrut Nation.
I am now available to engage with students, male or female, wishing to enter into the preliminary stage of learning sofrut. You are welcome to join me on this path.
"Tzedeq, tzedeq tir'dof - Justice, justice you shall pursue." Devarim/Deuteronomy 16:20.

"Lekh" means "go" in the masculine imperative. "Lekha" can be interpreted as moving towards one's Self. Go inside & discover the Great Mystery which is You. This is the beginning of the journey of Av Ram - the Great Father, or "Big Daddy" (hat tip to Danya!).

The words lekh lekha look exactly the same as each other when written in Hebrew:לך לךIt's the vowels which differentiate the one from the other.לֶךְ-לְךָ

There is a midrash which teaches us that while we grow in our mother's womb, an angel teaches us the whole Torah, then touches us on the philtrum to cause all we've learned to rest in our subconscious. We then spend our entire lives seeking the wisdom which already lies within, by having what are popularly called "learning experiences".

When you look at the letters of the words "lekh lekha", they illustrate the path we take to return to our true selves. The letter Lamed (ל), whose root means "to learn" & whose pictographic shape is that of a goad, reaches higher than any other letter of the Alefbet. The letter Khaf (ך) means "palm of the hand", the thing we grasp with, & in its final form drops low down. With these letters we can learn that the journey of returning to ourselves requires learning lessons & grasping those lessons. & that the learning experiences may bring us to the very heights of joy, or to the depths of despair. Or both. & that these are necessary steps along the way.

As the Kotzker Rebbe once said, "If The Holy One were to reveal our true essence to us, we would be unable to survive for even an instant". Does this sound familiar? If it does, it's because The Holy One tells us in Sh'mot/Exodus 33:20: וַיֹּאמֶר, לֹא תוּכַל לִרְאֹת אֶת-פָּנָי: כִּי לֹא-יִרְאַנִי הָאָדָם, וָחָי. 20 Va-yomer, "Lo tukhal lir'ot et-panai, ki-lo yir'ani ha-adam ve-chai"& He said: 'You cannot see My face, for humans shall not see Me & live.'

Because the essence of each & every human being is tzelem El@qim, the image, or the shadow, of G@d. Our souls are each a sacred spark from the One Source.

May we all be blessed to accept our lessons graciously, learn them so as not to have to repeat any, & have faith in the loving G@d who teaches us these lessons while we navigate the difficulties. May we all know our true selves.

2 Comments:

I send you an email (but due to your automatic reply, I'd thought I'd post here as well):

Aviel...this is a no brainer, but Aliza and I would like to hire youto do our ketubah. It would truly be an honor to have your work andyour spirit hanging in wherever we end up calling home. If this ispossible, what are the steps we need to take to make this happen?